About a third of workers across New England currently make under $15 per hour and would ostensibly benefit from raising the minimum wage to that rate, according to a recent community development issue brief out of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The Boston Fed was clear in its brief that it was not aiming to measure the total economic impact of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, but rather was focusing solely on those workers currently making less than $15 per hour.
The report’s author notes, “A comprehensive impact study would quantify the effects on businesses of payroll increases and operating costs, the effects on employment from substitution away from unskilled labor, the effects of increased prices on the sales of consumer goods and the income effects of increased incomes on consumer demand. The objective of this brief is to present information that describes who currently earns less than $15 per hour in each state in New England, using data from the 2014 American Community Survey.”
More than 1.7 million workers, 32.3 percent of the entire region’s workforce, make under $15 per hour. In Massachusetts, which has a minimum wage of $10 per hour, it’s 29.7 percent of workers. Connecticut, with a $9.60 per hour minimum wage, has a slightly higher share at 30.6 percent. Maine, whose minimum wage is $7.50 per hour, had the highest share of workers making under $15 per hour with 43.6 percent of its workforce falling into that category.
Greater shares of women and minorities also made under $15 per hour. Across New England, 35.8 percent of women made under $15 per hour, compared with 28.8 percent of men. Broken down by racial lines, 29.2 percent of white workers, 43.1 percent of black workers and 52.6 percent of Latino workers in New England made under $15 per hour.
While most of those workers making under $15 an hour have lower levels of education, one in five have a bachelor’s degree. More than half of those workers are the primary earners in their households, and most work full-time, the Boston Fed said.
The full brief is available here.
